Dr Alison Morrison-Low receives the Brisbane Medal of the RSSA
from the President following her talk to the Society

"The Soldier-Astronomer:Thomas Makdougall Brisbane's scientific
work"

Dr Alison D Morrison-LowNational Museums of Scotland

In the Wolfson Suite, Ground Floor
Edinburgh University Library
George Square, Edinburgh
On Monday 19th January 2004, at 7 pm

Thomas Brisbane (1773-1860) was governor of New South Wales between
1822 and 1826. He took with him to Australia the contents of his
private observatory at Largs, and this should have meant that southern
hemisphere astronomy should have begun on a firm basis. However, this
was not to be the case. After Brisbane's recall to the United Kingdom,
he set up two further observatories, one astronomical and one
meteorological, and in due course became a patron of scientific
endeavour through his position as President of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh from 1833. After his death, possibly because his children
predeceased him and his estates were sold up, his work was rapidly
forgotten. This talk will examine Brisbane's role in astronomical and
meteorological science, and assess whether his work deserves the
oblivion to which it appears to have been consigned.